248 



THE WILLOW. 



who guide the vessel by oars. Each boat con- 

 tains, besides the goods and rowers, a living ass, 

 or if the vessel be a large one, several. On their 

 arrival at Babylon they dispose of their mer- 

 chandize, take their vessels to pieces, sell the 

 Willow-ribs and straw, and having laden their 

 asses with the skins, return home by land, the 

 current not allowing them to sail up the stream. 

 On some of the rivers of India, boats of a precisely 

 similar form are used at the present time, some of 

 them large enough to transport heavy artillery. 

 The only difference appears to be that Bamboo is 

 now used to form the ribs instead of Willow. 



Pliny, quoting a more ancient author, says that 

 the Britons used to make voyages to an island 

 called Mictis, distant six days' sail, in vessels of 

 the same construction as those described above, 

 and to return with cargoes of tin. Julius Caesar 

 relates, in his History of the Civil War, that his 

 recollection of the coracles which he had seen 

 during his invasion of Britain, was, on one occa- 

 sion the means of extricating his army from a 

 critical position ; for, being hemmed in by the 

 enemy, and being unable to throw a bridge across 

 a river which impeded his movements, he set his 

 troops to work, and quickly completed enough 

 boats to transport his army. 



In a picturesque point of view, the Willows do 

 not rank high ; they are formal in their mode of 

 growth, and are loaded with bundles of twigs, 

 rather than with ramified branches : the foliage 

 too is meagre, and is not disposed to form pleas- 

 ing tufts. Gilpin does not recommend their use 

 in artificial landscape, except as pollards, to 

 characterize a marshy country ; or to mark in a 



